Wow! This internship is SUPER fun! I didn't imagine it would be this eye-opening and fun. I really love how I get to be involved in the a maternity hospital. I am surprised by how much the doctors allow me to assist them and their patients. I am able to work with a wide variety of doctors, nurses, clinic assistants, phlebotomists, and other personnel in the hospital. I am able to ask many questions while I observe them work. I am loving it!
I work from 8 a.m. until 1 p.m., but I am not ready to leave for the day when my shift is over. I still want to keep helping all the patients and learning more. The doctors will also ask me to go home and research topics that they commonly talk about in the hospital so that I can help patients answer commonly asked questions. Such as, "what should I eat and not eat during my pregnancy?", "what are so signs of alarm during pregnancy?", what vaccinations does my baby need to receive during its first years of life?". I am learning so much!
After getting home from volunteering at the hospital, I am left with a lot of time. I arrive home at 2 or 2:30 and by then the food is typically prepared. Here, they eat tortillas with all their meals, and lots of them! Locals eat around 5 tortillas each meal! I eat many tacos, panuchos, or sandwiches with pork or chicken, beans, and a variety of different foods! They also love to drink coca-cola down here! I am used to water with all my meals, but when people eat any meal around here it is very rare that they do not have some sort of soda or juice to go along with it.
After eating lunch, I usually cool off in the pool for an hour and frequently bring my laptop to set on the pool side to either write in my daily journal or write about the observation that I have made here in Mexico. It is very hot during the day here, and it's nearly impossible to find a cool place here. Air conditioned buildings are not commonly seen here, and although there is shade, it is still extremely hot and humid. I prefer the pool!
At nights, our group usually goes out to eat food! The food here is extremely cheap and delicious! I usually feel guilty after going out to eat multiple times in the same week, but here, I feel like it is almost just as expensive to buy and prepare your own food as it is to go buy yourself dinner. It is also really convenient because the food services are really fast and easy. After having ordered your food at a typical restaurant, one can expect to be served within the next 5-7 minutes. However, sanitation here is something that they struggle with. As I walk buy the many food stands, I see that the meat or fruit that they sell has many flies or insects that surround it. This worries me a little bit! Also, the fact that they do not use gloves when making the food and touching the meat and bread worries me. You never know what they have been touching or the last time that they washed their hands! Even these small differences can be very shocking to tourists or people not familiar with the culture.
Over the weekends, I do not go to the hospital and I like to explore beaches or other cool sites! Mexico has some underwater caves, called "cenotes", that are so beautiful and worth traveling to see. It is nice and cool in them and the water is super clean and pure. I vistited some in Santa Barbara. Mexico also has some awesome beaches, and here, the ocean water is extremely warm! The first time I got into the ocean here I was shocked because I was not freezing at the end of my swim. I was actually warmer by staying in the water and not by laying out in the sun on the beach!
